Great content come in all sizes

Here's a few things you may have heard often if trying to post videos on Facebook

Have the brand logo within the first 5 seconds
Shoot with mobile in mind (vertical)
Have clearly visible subtitles
The video should be mute compatible (since videos play on mute by default
For better effectiveness - keep the video to within 240 seconds (4 minutes) 

These are the general guidelines for video uploads on Facebook

There are far sharper guidelines based on your communication objective, which we don't need to get into.

But this isn't a Facebook video masterclass.

It's a post that made me laugh at the irony of these guidelines.

In the past few years - I've been in many meetings with the client where they have had a representative from Facebook who almost preached on how ads should be "Made for Facebook".

They cautioned us that long format ads will not work (90 seconds itself seemed long to them)

They told us to shoot it keeping the Facebook specs in mind to ensure better viewability.

I had a colleague who resonated with the same feeling I was getting from all of this.
While this may be necessary guidelines - I don't think it is a mandatory nor a sign of better effectiveness of ads posted on Facebook.

My argument was, and yet is that, many people yet discover ads on Facebook (and other social media channels too). Great storytelling can definitely happen in shorter durations, but it's another thing to tell agencies that the best stories are short stories.

In fact, Facebook even had a contest for short form content, calling them Thumbstoppers.

The idea behind thumbstoppers came from the consumer behaviour and data that Facebook had, which was that people are scrolling endlessly through their Facebook feed, and need a content that can grab their attention as quickly as possible and hold them for just enough time. 

And here comes the funny irony that got me cracking up.





The new Facebook film, beautifully conceptualized by Taproot, is a demonstration that the spiel that Facebook keep advising agencies with, on the effectiveness of videos on their platform, isn't always true. In fact, it strengthens the notion that storytelling need not be small to work and get people to notice. Long format content, if interesting enough, will keep the audiences hooked.

And I believe that long format ads are tougher to hold one's attention than shorter ones. At a time when you are giving your eyes and ears to a platform to help you while away time, you won't feel time wasted if 30 seconds you spend watching an ad you didn't like. But marketers assume, with some vague, almost nefarious data shared, that long format videos will not work.

They do. They work wonders if done right. And the payoff is also high. For both the consumer and the ad creators - much like a feature film.

It doesn't matter if the film is 6 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 90 seconds, or 8 minutes or even 3 hours. If the content you are watching has managed to reel the audience in - it will work. It's never the duration, it's the story, the direction and all the other sciences attached to film making. 

And while we are at looking at social media ironies, here are some that should be in the pipeline: 

1. Twitter starting a twitter thread on how to write better and shorter tweets
2. Instagram creating an IGTV post for India to prove that IGTV doesn't work in India
3. A Global TikTok video series on how where else to go now that TikTok is banned
4. An emailer campaign on how to make people open their emailers.

Ok, the last one was a bit of a stretch. Who the hell opens emailers from sources one hasn't subscribed to apart from those annoying, always ready to forward, yet learning digital type uncles!

I wonder 2 things post seeing this ad:

The amount of pain, iterations, convincing and determination that the agency had to convince the client for this long format ad.
Or - for once - the client, post the success of this ad - will relook at the guidelines they are setting for other brands.

You see, it's often the rule maker who is the licensed rule breaker. And is also made to rewrite the rule in the process. Let the vicious circle begin.

PS - The virality of the organic post in the ad is definitely questionable - but, what the hell - creative license need to be exploited for the betterment of content and for the arousal of emotions!

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